Vestibular and Postural Function in an Unselected Group of Children With Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Vestibular ASsessment In Children - Balance Function in Normal Children and Specific Risk Groups (VASIC)
Gødstrup Hospital
48 participants
Aug 20, 2025
OBSERVATIONAL
Conditions
Summary
The goal of this prospective cohort study is to investigate the vestibular function in children with unilateral or bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. The main hypothesis of the study is that abnormal vestibular test results will be found in 20-30 % of the children with sensorineural hearing loss. The participants will be children in the age of 3-10 years with sensorineural hearing loss. The test protocol consists of questionnaires and vestibular and postural assessments.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria3
- Children in the age of 3-10 years
- Uni- or bilateral sensorineural hearing loss \> 20 dB bone conduction pure tone average measured at frequencies 0.5, 1, 2, 4 kHz
- Written informed consent from the parents.
Exclusion Criteria7
- Previous inner ear surgery
- Visual impairment to such a degree that the child is not able to maintain fixation on a dot one meter away.
- Congenital nystagmus
- Compromised eye muscle mobility
- VEMP-electrode allergy
- History of symptomatic head or neck trauma
- Prescription of medicine which alters vestibular outputs (for instance sedative antihistamines)
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Interventions
For v-HIT, the Synapsys v-HIT Ulmer device is used.
For cVEMP, the Eclipse (Interacoustic, Middelfart, Denmark) is used. To bypass the frequent middle ear problems bone conduction stimuli (B-81, Interacoustic, Middelfart, Denmark) are administrated. The bone conductor is placed on the mastoid process and two trials at 70 dB nHL are conducted to check waveform reproducibility. 500 Hz short tone bursts (2-2-2 ms) are applied at 5 per second stimulus repetition rate.
For oVEMP, the Eclipse (Interacoustic, Middelfart, Denmark) is used. To bypass the frequent middle ear problems bone conduction stimuli (B-81, Interacoustic, Middelfart, Denmark) are administrated. The bone conductor is placed on the mastoid process and two trials at 70 dB nHL are conducted to check waveform reproducibility. 500 Hz short tone bursts (2-2-2 ms) are applied at 5 per second stimulus repetition rate.
To evaluate functional balance of the children and the relative contributions of the vision, proprioception, and vestibular system a CDP from Virtualis (Virtualis, Montpellier, France) is used.
DHI is a caregiver-reported 21- item questionnaire. It is designed to evaluate the perceived quality of life and handicap resulting from dizziness and unsteadiness for the pediatric population. For each question there are three possible answers: yes, sometimes or no. Each answer provides respectively 4, 2 and 0 points. The total DHI scores range from 0 to 84 with higher score being consistent with more limitation and more severe handicap. Scores under 16 are characterized as no limitation or handicap. A score from 16-26 present a mild perceived handicap and mild limitations. A DHI-score between 26-43 is classified as a moderate problem, and a score above 43 describes a severe perceived handicap and severe limitations.
Locations(1)
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NCT06229717